Winds of change: Turbines a sign of expanding industry

From the mountains of Maine to the shores of Hawaii, wind farms are now part of the U.S. scene, raising energy instead of crops.

Steve Tarter

From the mountains of Maine to the shores of Hawaii, wind farms are now part of the U.S. scene, raising energy instead of crops.

While turbines dot the landscape, wind energy has a long way to go to reach a government mandate to generate 20 percent of the nation's energy by 2030.

The U.S. wind portfolio is picking up but still playing catch-up to other nations, said Kevin Borgia, executive director of the Chicago-based Illinois Wind Energy Association.

"Europe decided to incentivize wind in the 1980s and 1990s when the United States didn't," he said.

That explains why a majority of manufacturers of equipment needed for wind power hailed from Europe. But wind energy is picking up steam in the United States and more manufacturing of turbines is done domestically, he said.

"There are two sides to the wind industry: the manufacture of equipment such as turbines, and development, companies that set up wind farms through land acquisition and working with communities," Borgia said.

Across the plains

While the industry is expanding, it's a mixed bag of energy sources.

Texas remains the national leader when it comes to harnessing wind energy, while the states of North and South Dakota have the greatest wind potential, representing "the Saudi Arabia of wind," he said.

But to ship wind power from the Dakotas to Boston costs money. Transmission lines are expensive, as high as $1 million a mile in some cases. "That's where offshore wind farms come in," Borgia said.

There are reasons why wind energy is more common in the Midwest and across the Plains than it is in the Northeast, he said.

"The winds are not as strong in the Northeast as they are in the Midwest, and the Northeast is more densely populated," Borgia said.

"You just can't build turbines in everybody's neighborhood.”

Offshore turbines

Offshore farms may make more sense for the Northeast. Offshore winds are stronger, and their location at sea means no conflict with residential neighborhoods. But conflict has resulted nevertheless.

A wind turbine project proposed for off the coast of Cape Cod in Massachusetts has met opposition that includes an environmental group headed by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., he said.

Borgia doesn't think it makes sense for groups concerned with pollution and energy independence to oppose the concept of wind power. "I think it's hypocritical. Energy has to come from somewhere," he said.

Critics of wind energy point to high costs of development and transmission, visual pollution and the risk posed to birds.

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